|
 The
University is located on the highest
hill in Bethlehem, eight kilometers
south of Jerusalem. It is a
co-educational institution open to
students of all faiths and is sponsored
by the Vatican to serve the higher
educational needs of the Palestinians of
the West Bank, Arab Jerusalem and the
Gaza Strip. The University had its
beginning in 1972 when Pio Laghi, the
Apostolic Delegate of the Vatican to the
Holy Land, formed a committee of heads
of schools in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem to study the possibility of
establishing an institution of higher
learning which would offer a broad
education I Arts and Sciences.
Subsequently, on October 1, 1973,
Bethlehem University was founded with
the administrative cooperation of the De
La Salle Brothers (FSC).
Students and graduates
of Bethlehem University are accepted in
Arab, European, and American
universities. The University is listed
in international handbooks,
encyclopedias of higher education, the
World Education Series of American
Association of Collegiate Registrars and
Admission Officers, the World of Europa
Learning Publications, and the Middle
East Studies Association of North
America (MESA). The University is a
member of the Association of Arab
Universities and the International
Federation of Catholic Universities.
The purpose of
Bethlehem University is to serve the
Palestinian people as a center of
learning for the advancement,
preservation, dissemination, and
utilization of knowledge. The highest
aspiration of any university is to imbue
the minds of the students with knowledge
in a spirit of understanding, ethical
vision, and universally esteemed moral
principles. In the stricter sense, the
purpose of the University is to provide
a center of higher learning easily
accessible to promising young
Palestinian students, thereby making it
possible for them to obtain quality
higher education without going abroad.
(Bethlehem University Catalog,
2000-2002)
Department
of Humanities program description
Adnan Musallam, Ph.D.
Chairperson
|
